Quinoa and Lentil Curry with Broccoli

So here is the deal…..I am, as of recently, on a low-inflammation diet. It is a healthy, balanced diet with a decent amount of restrictions. Though I am glad there are a lot of great foods on my "yes" food list, I am still stomped at times when trying to come up with dinner. Today I am cooking dinner out of our stash of food so as it turns out none of us are eating the same! What my kids and my husband are eating I cannot have so ....what is mamma having????

Once I had cleared out the fridge for my husband's and my kids' dinners I did one last fridge/pantry/freezer raid in a desperate attempt to find some dinner for myself. And that is how this Curry recipe was born! Hope you enjoy J

HeartyTurkey Meatballs

The inspiration for my turkey meatball recipe comes from a recipe for Hearty Turkey Meatloaf which I found in Joy Bauer's book Food Cures. 

Below you find my modified recipe. Enjoy!

Hearty Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients

- 1 lb lean ground turkey (or beef or chicken)

- 2 medium sized carrots, (peeled and minced or finely shredded)

- 1 cup quick oatmeal (can be GF)

- 1/2 - 3/4 cup finely chopped white mushrooms

- 1 Tblsp dried basil

Feeding our family of 5 for a month for less than $185!

So I know we are well into February by now, but I still want to take a look back at January and how my food/household spending challenge worked out.

I set myself a goal of not spending more than $1/person/day on food and $1/day on other household items. This worked out to 

($1 x 5 people x 31 days) + $1 x 31 days = $186 total for the month.
**take a look at the very end if you would like some perspective on how much this is**

My original post about my belt tightening is here, and I point out that this budget includes all food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper goods and diapers.

I tallied up all my receipts and I came to a grand total of $184.93!! YAY! 
($25.14 on household and $159.79 on food)

My Favorite Wheat and Rye Bread (which I make quite often)

I got a Honey Whole Wheat Bread Recipe from my sister a while back and if I am not mistaken it is this recipe from Martha Stewart . However, like with most recipes, I made some changes and switched things around. The result in this case is my Wheat and Rye Bread, which I love and my kids really like it too. It is dense, it is hearty, it is very good!

Wheat and Rye Bread

Ingredients:
2 loaves

3 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees F)
2 tablespoons Maple Syrup (You can use honey or other sweetener of your choice)
2 packs of Active Dry Yeast (= 4 1/2 teaspoons)
- - -

Jan 4th - Meals prepared ahead of time is the way to go!

Today was a relatively "easy" food day because all our meals were in the fridge, more or less ready to just heat and serve. I have vowed to myself many a time to cook in bulk, freeze meals and be better prepared. And I will try again :) New year, new chance!

I would like to note that my husband was not there for neither breakfast nor lunch today, which made those meals stretch a bit further. 

Also, even though today's meals seem entirely devoid of vegetables I will note that the besides the soup being a veggie soup the meatballs have both mushrooms and carrots in them already. But do not worry, of course I will not keep our vegetable intake this low forever, but for now I am convinced we will be A-OK :) 

Jan 2nd - Baking away

I continued my food challenge today and made another small dent in the pantry and fridge. 

Here are the items I made and what ingredients I used today:

Breakfast: 

- Oatmeal

     *oats

     *milk

     *butter

Lunch:

- "Pizza"

     *homemade dough using 1 pack of yeast, sea salt, all purpose flour and oil from the pantry

     *the sauce was half the jar of potato/cauliflower soup

     *the meatballs cut up were the topping

     *half of the piece of Parmesan cheese shredded on top

January 2015 - Starting with a clean slate

A new year has begun and this year, rather than starting with a long list of resolutions, I want to start with a clean slate and see where it takes me.

Today it took me into my fridge, freezer and pantry. 

I needed to take a closer look at what I have on hand in the food department as this new year starts, and I also want to truly challenge myself to stretch what I have to the fullest. Looking at the list it might seem like I have a lot of food, and there is, but some quantities are very small. 

The challenge now is to try to use up a lot of this food over the next couple of days and then I will post an updated list and some new pictures. Take a look below for today's details!

Lentil Soup Kit for the freezer

A while back I posted a recipe for lentil soup in the slow cooker. Today I once again made a batch of this, but I also made several "kits" and put them in the freezer. I usually just make a gigantic portion of the actual soup and freeze it, but now my freezer is full so this worked out better. 

Lentil Soup Kit

Chop, in small dice:

- 1-2 large carrots

- 2 medium stalks celery

- 1/4 - 1/2 medium onion

- 2 slices bacon